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Let's capture the moment...or not?

21:36

The
belief that we take too many pictures may be an odd one to be held by a blogger
– particularly one whose posts have a picture to text ratio of about 9:1. But
then again, I also believe it unacceptable to eat beef (due to my love of cows)
despite eating all of its farmyard friends, so let’s presume from now on that
my thoughts are a mixture of oddness/hypocrisy.

My
trail of thought began on an innocent summers evening, where I had just
purchased my new ‘Cooler’ magazine. As I turned to the Editors letter, I was
hit with an array of questions. “How many selfies do you have on your phone? Or
Instagram? Are they really only there because you were desperate to take a
picture when there was nobody else around? Was it not just vanity?” Before I
knew it I was seeing words such as ‘narcissism’ and phrases such as ‘drowning
in a pool of self-love’ and our personalities disappearing ‘in a quest for
Instagram likes, Facebook comments and tumblr followers.’

What
was happening?! I don’t even take selfies!! But why did I feel like I was being
accused? Was I any less guilty because I used photos other people had taken of
me? Has my excuse of ‘it’s for my blog’ finally been revealed?

As I
sat in a state of bewilderment, I began thinking about the reasons why we post
‘selfies’. Because really there’s only one. No-one posts a picture of
themselves and hopes for it not to be liked: a close-up mugshot is just asking
for attention. And it is, at the end of the day, vain – nobody gets a perfect
shot first time. That’s gotta be a whole lot of self-lovin to sit and take a
load of pictures of your face. And then just a bit more to think that all of your
friends/followers want to see these photos too.

Now
I have never taken a selfie (it’s hard!), but as my friend pointed out, having
other people take a picture for me is just as bad. My friends and I will always
take photos of each other before we leave on a night out. And no it’s not for a
nice photo of all us to look back on, it’s usually for a nice new shiny profile
picture. As I began to think about all the photos we take, I thought to myself
- what pictures would we take if social networking didn’t exist? If we didn’t
have the internet to share these pictures? Because it would be a whole lot
different – you never look through granny’s old photo albums to see a load of
pouting close-ups of her face with “not sure about this one?” scribbled
underneath.

Suddenly
I had an epiphany. I felt wiser, as though my 2 years of studying Philosophy had
really paid off. Wasn’t it ironic, that by posing for pictures to show to
everyone that we’re enjoying the moment, we’re actually missing out that
moment? Last year at Wireless festival I spent so much time trying to get
pictures of Rihanna that I may as well just have sat home on Google all night.
And who really cares? Did I need 100 photos of Rihanna? No. And do I really
want to see yet another picture of your face on my timeline? No probably not.
And when I questioned my other friends they all generally agreed – selfies are
sad, bad and attention seeking.

Just
as I was thinking of changing my entire life and never taking another photo
again, a reply came through from one of my friends who does take selfies. Do
you think it’s bad that we only take pictures for likes I had asked her. Yeah,
she had replied – but who cares? And as I thought about her answer, I realised
she was right. It’s not the end of the world that we like taking pictures of
ourselves. Whilst I still personally don’t think I would ever take a selfie,
maybe I should just admire the confidence of the people who do.Yeah it’s vain, but sometimes there’s nothing
wrong with a bit of that: if you look good, share it with everyone. We’ll
probably be old and fat soon so let’s take plenty while it lasts.

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Who am I?

About me

22 year old from the UK trying to navigate post-university life. I studied Writing Fashion and Culture where I planned to take the route of travel and fashion journalism, before having the idea for my business Reset, a therapeutic travel company. This blog is the document of the journey: my own personal one and the one of the business. Expect to find plenty of rambling and self-doubt, but hopefully some positivity and inspiration too. Enjoy!